07/01/2009 | 04:14 PM
MANILA, Philippines — Elderly, sick or pregnant Muslim devotees who wish to make their pilgrimage to Islam's holiest city, Mecca (Makkah), should skip this year's Haj, Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday.
Saudi health officials gave the advice in view of the rising number of A(H1N1) cases especially among expatriates returning to the kingdom from vacation.
A report by the online site Arab News Wednesday said the recommendation was arrived at during a health experts' workshop on precautionary health measures during Haj.
Among the participants were experts from the World Health Organization, other international agencies and Saudi Arabia, the online report said.
About 4,000 Filipinos join more than 2 million Muslims all over the world every year to take part in the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia's eastern city of Makkah.
Pilgrims dying of illness during Haj is not an uncommon occurrence and Saudi Arabia makes it a point to vaccinate participants for such contagious diseases as meningitis and flu upon their arrival in the kingdom.
Meeting participants, however, said the weak or infirm should not be allowed to take the unnecessary risk this time since the A(H1N1) virus has been proved to be deadly especially to those who have existing illnesses.
As of June 29, the WHO's tally of A(H1N1) cases is at 70,893, including 311 deaths in 110 countries.
Saudi Arabia has reported 69 cases, mostly imported transmissions. Of the total, 10 are Filipino nurses.
Saudi Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabeeah said the workshop recommended that pilgrims, local residents and service providers in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah (Medina) should be vaccinated against the A(H1N1) virus at least two weeks before their departure from their home countries.
The vaccine is expected to be available in the market by November in time for the Haj season.
Other major recommendations at the workshop included that Saudi health authorities and Haj delegations representing various countries stock necessary quantities of medication for treatment and prevention of the virus causing the swine flu.
Referral laboratories should have reserve stocks of reagents and trained manpower to deal with the large number of people in Haj.
Pilgrims, residents and those in contact with them should also be vaccinated against seasonal flu.
The workshop also recommended that pilgrims take the new A(H1N1) vaccine when it becomes available later this year, before coming to Saudi Arabia.
Also, the workshop stressed the need for continuing the monitoring and checking of the spread of swine flu in the Kingdom.
Practicing personal hygienic habits such as covering the nose while sneezing, coughing into tissues and washing hands with water and soap besides wearing masks while visiting crowded places were also recommended.
Quarantine facilities should be close to arrival lounges for Haj pilgrims, according to the experts.
Recording and preserving accurate data about the disease for future reference was also stressed at the workshop.
The workshop also urged the importance of adhering to the health conditions issued by the Saudi Ministry of Health. The MoH and WHO annually prepare plans for awareness campaigns.
Dr. Al-Rabeeah said the World Health Organization (WHO) experts who participated in the conference were satisfied with the precautionary measures taken by the Kingdom to prevent the spread of the virus among pilgrims during the Haj season.
"What the health authorities in the Kingdom are doing to prevent the spread of the disease by far surpasses what is being done anywhere else in the world," Al-Rabeeah said.
He added the Kingdom was the only country which was implementing the system of quarantine recommended by the WHO.
But he said that as of now, there is no effective vaccine against the disease.
"The available vaccines are yet to be evaluated and assessed, a process that might take months," he said. - GMANews.TV
From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.
AFP - Friday, June 19
Muslim pilgrims attend sunset prayers at the Prophet Mohammed Mosque in the Saudi holy city of Medina in 2008. Saudi Arabia is gearing up for a possible outbreak of swine flu among millions of Muslim pilgrims this year as four new cases were detected in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina this week, the health ministry said.
RIYADH (AFP) - - Saudi Arabia is gearing up for a possible outbreak of swine flu among millions of Muslim pilgrims this year as four new cases were detected in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina this week, the health ministry said.
Three Saudi children in Medina were diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, the ministry said on Thursday, while a nine-year-old Malaysian boy was found infected in a hotel near Mecca's Grand Mosque on Wednesday.
Nationwide, 12 new cases have been announced over the two-day period, taking the total to 29 since the virus first appeared on June 3.
The case underscored the threat of an outbreak among the more than two million Muslims expected to arrive from around the world during the August-December pilgrimage season, ministry spokesman Khaled Marghlani said.
The host to Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, the government is already working with the World Health Organisation and other international bodies to finalise a plan for dealing with the threat, Marghlani told AFP on Wednesday.
"The whole world is worried about it," he said. "We are trying very hard. The people coming here are guests of Allah."
The ministry has stockpiled doses of the antiviral medication Tamiflu equivalent to 10 percent of the country's 25.3 million population, he said.
Commercial pharmacies have been reporting heavy sales of the drug as well amid rising public concern, according to media reports.
Tamiflu is effective in treating swine flu in its early stages.
Before the Malaysian boy's case, members of a Mauritanian family visiting Medina from Canada were diagnosed with A(H1N1), underscoring the threat that already exists from the thousands of people undertaking the umrah, or minor pilgrimage.
The government expects the threat to rise dramatically when the umrah season picks up in late August, during the fasting month of Ramadan, and then with the main hajj pilgrimage in late November, Marghlani said.
The hajj sees some 1.7 million people from around the world jam into Mecca and Medina for two weeks, most arriving through the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Marghlani said Saudi Arabia already has a well-organised plan for prevention and then care of disease among pilgrims.
"The hajj and umrah have a pretty sophisticated surveillance system," he said, adding that there have been no major outbreaks of disease among pilgrims in recent years.
For swine flu, the ministry expects to finalise its plans with the WHO this month. The kingdom is already inspecting airport arrivals with thermal cameras.
However, the recent infections underscore the challenge.
The Malaysian boy and a Saudi student arriving from the United States on June 7 were detected with feverish temperatures by thermal equipment at Jeddah airport.
But for unexplained reasons both were able to continue travelling -- the student taking a domestic flight -- before finally being contacted by health officials and taken to hospital.
In addition, some of the newest infections are hospital staff who came in contact with the infected patients, the ministry said.
From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.
Posted: 15 June 2009 0508 hrs
A student has her temperature taken at a clinic in Melbourne, Australia.
SYDNEY: Australia prepared to ratchet up its A(H1N1) flu alert on Sunday and Saudi Arabia made plans to guard against the pandemic's spread during pilgrimages to Muslim holy sites as cases worldwide neared 30,000.
Three days after the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic, Saudi junior health minister Khalid al-Zahrani said the ministry was shoring up health care services and monitoring for the disease.
But the kingdom would not restrict entry to pilgrims because of the threat, the official SPA news agency reported.
As well as the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, which all Muslims are required to make once in a lifetime if they can, the faithful can also make a lesser pilgrimage to the holy places, known as omra, at any time of the year.
Saudi Arabia reported three new A(H1N1) flu cases on Sunday: a Mauritanian arriving from Canada and a Saudi brother and sister, taking to 12 the number of cases since the virus first appeared in the kingdom 11 days ago.
In Australia, Health Minister Nicola Roxon said that with the national tally nearing 1,500 cases, the whole country would soon move to the "sustain" phase in line with hotspot state Victoria.
This phase, Australia's second-highest, gives authorities the power to cancel sports events, close schools and restrict travel, although officials say extreme measures such as closing national borders are unlikely.
The World Health Organisation raised its global alert to a maximum six on Thursday, saying A(H1N1) flu had reached pandemic status because of its geographical spread.
A(H1N1) flu has so far infected almost 30,000 people in 74 countries and claimed 145 lives since it was first detected in Mexico in April, according to the latest WHO figures released on Friday.
A total of 1,458 cases of the A(H1N1) virus have been counted in Australia, the worst-hit Asia-Pacific country, with the fifth highest number of cases worldwide.
"As the numbers gradually increase in jurisdictions there will be steps over the coming days to move to a consistent alert level," Roxon said.
Meanwhile, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the country not to panic after health authorities reported 150 confirmed cases of the virus on Sunday - almost 10 times the tally just three days earlier.
"People should not panic. The death ratio for the new flu is probably lower than normal flu," Abhisit said.
France meanwhile reported a further two cases of the disease on Sunday after 11 school children were hospitalised following a suspected outbreak near Toulouse, in the southwest.
The 11 pupils, aged around 11, were admitted to hospital with suspected A(H1N1) infections.
It is in the southern hemisphere that the need for a vaccine is more urgent, as countries there are heading into winter and the height of their flu season.
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis on Friday stole a march on competitors by announcing it had completed a first batch of its vaccine for pre-clinical trials.
A spokesman told AFP it hoped to have a vaccine in production by September or October.
Novartis said it hoped to start trials on patients in July and to gain a licence soon after. It said more than 30 governments had already asked for A(H1N1) virus "vaccine ingredients."
The US government gave Novartis 289 million dollars (205 million euros) to help develop a vaccine. It also placed an order with Sanofi-Pasteur of France, which said it hoped to have doses ready for clinical trials in coming weeks.
British-controlled GlaxoSmithKline said it could produce a vaccine in four to six months and that it was ready to convert a donation of 50 million doses of vaccine against H5N1 bird flu for the WHO to A(H1N1) flu doses. - AFP/de
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
06/08/2009 | 06:55 PM
MANILA, Philippines - The Saudi government has tightened up its enforcement of rules for the prevention of A(H1N1) flu in time for the holy month of Ramadan.
A report from the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah said the Saudi government expects nearly three million pilgrims to visit the Holy Land during Ramadan.
"Post reported that the Saudi government has strictly enforced World Health Organization rules on prevention of A(H1N1) in anticipation of possible outbreak of A(H1N1) in Saudi's holy sites during the month of Ramadan with the expected arrival of close to three million pilgrims from around the world," it said on the Department of Foreign Affairs website.
A comprehensive information campaign about the virus was launched, it added.
For this year, Ramadan is expected to start in the second half of August and will continue for 30 days.
Earlier, a Filipino nurse confirmed with A(H1N1) in Saudi Arabia.
The infected Filipino nurse, who is working at Riyadh's King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, has since recovered. [See: Pinay nurse infected with AH1N1 recovering in KSA]
Also, the Saudi Ministry of Health requested passengers who flew with the Filipino nurse infected with A(H1N1) to contact its hotlines to ensure they are not carrying the virus.
Last year, about 4,000 Filipino-Muslims participated in the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Haj is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world and is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in an Islam devotee's lifetime if he or she can afford it and is able to do so.
In 2007, among the prominent Filipino pilgrims were former Batangas Gov. Antonio Leviste and her more famous equestrienne daughter Toni; Reps. Mujib Hataman of the Anak Mindanao party-list group and Yusuf H. Jikiri of the 1st district of Sulu; Govs. Andal Ampatuan of Maguindanao, Sakur Tan of Sulu, and Sadikul A. Sahali of Tawi-Tawi. - GMANews.TV
From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 19-May-2009 02:53 hrs
Muslim pilgrims attend sunset prayers at the Prophet Mohammed Mosque in the Saudi holy city of Medina in 2008. Flu experts are casting a worried eye at the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, fearing that if swine influenza poses a threat six months from now, a health crisis would be massively complicated by the Hajj.
Flu experts are casting a worried eye at the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, fearing that if swine influenza poses a threat six months from now, a health crisis would be massively complicated by the Hajj.
Specialists questioned at a major medical conference in Helsinki shuddered at the implications if a highly contagious, novel flu virus were unleashed at the world's biggest annual gathering.
In the grimmest scenarios, the pathogen would not only find easy pickings among the elderly, the weak and sick in Mecca -- it would also hitch a plane ride among pilgrims returning home and thus spread farther.
"Just imagine, you have a virus that starts to spread over the world, then you bring people together from all over the world, put them all together for a couple of weeks, then you take them out again," said Albert Osterhaus, a professor at the Erasmus Medical Centre at the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
"If there's a mechanism by which you want to spread a virus, this is it."
Last December, an estimated two and a half million worshippers travelled to Islam's holiest site for the three-day fulfilment of their faith. This year's pilgrimage takes place November 25-28.
In interviews with AFP at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), Osterhaus and other specialists cautioned against alarmism, but urged Hajj organisers to start formulating response plans.
"The Hajj will take place, it's not like one of those things which is like a Pink Floyd concert, and you say, 'we don't need the concert'. This event will go through, that's for sure," said Andreas Voess, professor of Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands.
"I believe that the health authorities there, with the help of the WHO and others, would need to look at what do we do, what do we advise people... they have to be prepared and they have to start thinking about what to do now and not when they have got the first pilgrimage victim with influenza."
He added: "It is something that has to be looked at, it really does."
Since influenza (A)H1N1 swine flu leapt into the spotlight on April 24, nearly 8,500 people have fallen sick, according to the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO).
After originating in Mexico, it has swept into at least 39 countries and the WHO describes a pandemic as "imminent."
At present, the viral strain is considered relatively mild.
Even though it is a new genetic mix to which people do not appear to have immunity, it is roughly as contagious and virulent as normal (also called "seasonal") flu, which breaks out every year in slightly different strains and kills between quarter of a million and half a million people annually.
What will happen to the new virus in the coming months is the big unknown, creating a dilemma for watchdogs hoping to protect the Hajj.
"We cannot predict what will happen by that time, it might be striking, it might not, it might fade away," Osterhaus said.
One of Europe's top virologists, Osterhaus pointed to three ways the virus could go.
It could be ousted in the battle for Darwinian supremacy by the seasonal virus.
Or it could spread, developing into a pandemic that, by the standards of past killer flus, would be low-level. He drew a parallel with a 1957-58 pandemic that killed between one and four million people.
For pilgrims, the question is whether a pandemic vaccine will be available in time -- and in sufficient quantities -- to innoculate them.
The third, most frightening, scenario is that H1N1 could pick up genes by reassorting with other flu viruses, making it both more lethal as well as highly contagious. The nightmare benchmark for this is another H1N1 strain that in 1918-19 killed around 50 million people through "Spanish flu."
Pentti Huovinen, a professor of clinical microbiology at Finland's National Public Health Institute, said the challenge was to balance "the importance of religion and the threat of the disease."
"That's a question that we cannot answer very easily," he said. — AFP
From TODAY; Tuesday, 19-May-2009
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